A Roleplay With Hat-Tori

[Tokani]

The day had been long and cold, fortunately Kyle had spent the entirety of it on a nice warm plane coming back from Europe where his band had just finished touring. The tour ended just in time for Kyle to make it back home for the Holidays which was a plus because he hadn't seen his family in quite some time. Something would always come up and prevent him from making his way back home. Though finally the band was taking a 'break' so he could take time to actually go visit. Though he knew 'break' was just a fancy word for Stan needing to go through Rehab as usual. The drummer had messed up pretty bad recently and the courts were forcing him to go there, so now the band was done touring and doing gigs for a while.

It had been a long flight but he finally arrived back home in the late afternoon of the following day. There had been a storm in one of the nearby cities causing the flight to be delayed by several hours. It was a lovely break, stuck on a plane with nothing to do for an even longer period of time! Yay! Either way, he was finally back in his home town and he could stretch his legs. That was a big plus. After making sure his recently dyed black hair was covering his right eye the way it always was he left the plane and quickly entered the limousine that was waiting for him. Thankfully, he was unnoticed as he did this.

The roads were icy on the drive over, fortunately he had people who loaded his stuff into the vehicle for him, otherwise he would have probably fallen just as many times as the limo driver. The nice thing to do would have probably been to get out and help but over the years of having everyone go out of their way to do everything for you got to ones head after a while. So much time away from home had turned Kyle into a bit of a spoiled brat, the only thing keeping him from being a total douche was understanding that family and friends were still important. It was possibly the only thing that didn't change about this small-town boy. It was true, stardom really did change a person.

In order to make a good impression, Kyle decided he would carry out his own bags. So, after grabbing his stuff and leaving the limo driver a nice big tip of $500 or so he told the driver that he was done and he brought his stuff to the door. It was obvious that Kyle was far more 'preppy' than he was before he left home by the stylish brand names that he now wore, and the long slender manicured fingers. He was an idol now and an idol had to look it's best, right?

 

[Hat-tori]

James was a wholly different animal than his brother.

Whereas Kyle seemed to have everything fall into his lap, James worked. He studied for hours on end to achieve his normal grades, he worked in construction for his money, he practiced guitar religiously, and he kept his band away from drugs and excess with the eyes of a hawk. But his effort rarely paid off, and they were still in his garage, and the band was starting to get a bit... tense. After chewing out the drummer, Mike, for the meth, and Ricky, the bassist, for the weed... and after digging Seth the vocalist from the pile of men and women... Things were heading sour fast. It seemed they'd break up before their first album. Sex and drugs without the rock and roll, it was pitiful to him. Not to mention he was the only one who managed to graduate. Iron Wings was not on good times.

Bing-bong. He groaned. His brother was here.

His history with Kyle was... not wholly pleasant. They had been like any brothers, growing up. But over time, his brother began to overshadow him. Attention and adoration showered on him like rain, and James... James was left with nothing but his own pride. Still a sour point with him was the family leaving after Kyle had finished his recital, leaving him to play to two very noticable empty chairs. He felt it was his best performance of his life, and... they had missed it. And not just then, either. Countless other acheivements were ignored, scores disparaged for imperfection rather than effort, and, generally, feeling less like a son and more like a hanger-on. It was only natural to blame such things on Kyle, who vanished soon after graduation to leave the States. James was allowed to stay at home, but out of personal pride, paid rent anyway.

His body was one forged from work and effort. Callused hands and muscled arms, tanned shoulders and good reflexes. A strong, sturdy frame, and a booming voice. His eyes of sharp blue and hair of black only made it more clear that while his brother was someone you'd expect at the forefront of a japanese boy band, James was someone who would model for a Manowar cover. He rose from his matress and slid the guitar into place, sliding off the large, well-kept bed. He wore a pair of sweatpants, nothing else, and the drawstring was missing, leaving it to fall slightly on his hips. He walked to the door and opened it, looking down at his brother.

"Kyle." he said, nodding. He walked inside, to let him in. "The folks are out fetching Jen." Thier sister, who had done average. Wheras one of them had become famous, the other, unsuccessful, Jen had merely done average, taking up the violin and playing in a large orchestra. "Heard you had a long trip." he said, hoping to stall the hateful remarks and arguments with small talk. Despite the anger and resentment, he loved his brother. He just was sad that the both of them had not had equal success.

 

[Tokani]

It was true, everything did seem to fall into his lap. Though how was that his own fault? Singing came naturally to him, so why work hard to try and break even when you could make it big without any hard work at all? The choice seemed rather simple.

Hell, and it wasn't even like he lacked intelligence from not going to College. He was still very intelligent either way. He had been his entire childhood. Though clearly his intelligence was being rather wasted due to his choices. Was it really such a big deal though? Even though he wasn't making much use of his intellect, he was still living a very comfortable life and doing what he loved. Sometimes he did question if it was all worth it though. Living an easy life with no real friends, no real goals, nothing of any serious importance ever. Or living a life where you work hard, have goals, and take everything seriously?

The door opened and suddenly Kyle realized just how long he had really been gone. His brother had change a lot since they last spoke. He didn't recall James being as defined or even being built as large as he was now. Sure, James was always built much larger than Kyle but now it was much more noticeable.

"Hello, James." Kyle spoke as he walked into the house. Nothing seemed to have changed drastically, other than the fact that things were rearranged quite a bit. Couldn't expect someone to keep the exact same setup in their home forever though. "That's fine, I guess it can give us some time to catch up, right?" He spoke before placing his stuff down and stretching his shoulders out slightly. He had yet to notice his brothers obvious lack of clothing, though Kyle had always been the oblivious type.
"Yeah, it was long. Nothing really big happened while I was travelling though. I studied a bit of martial arts with one of my fans when I was travelling Europe, but other than that it was just gigs as usual I guess.." He explained while trying his hardest to avoid eye contact, it was something he always hated, even as a kid. "What's new with you? I hear you've been working on a band?" Kyle said in an attempt to change the subject to something that wasn't all about himself. He really didn't want to end up pissing off James and spend his entire visit with them both fighting.

 

[Hat-tori]

"Working on it indeed." he replied, walking into the kitchen. "They think that if you can play a guitar you can act like a rock star." he sighed. "I had to stage a goddamn intervention for one of them. Do you have any idea how hard that is? Watching these people I called my friends lose themselves in a lifestyle they don't even deserve." he sighed. "Not even one fraggin' album, and we're choking. Can't believe this shit." he said, doling ground chocolate into cups. "Well, it's not like you don't have problems of your own..." he went on, pouring some milk into a measuring cup. He put this into the microwave.

"So please, regale me with the wonders of your actual rock star lifestyle." he said, arcing a brow. "If I have anything, it's time. With weather like this, my construction company has shit-all to do."